Kyauktaw IDPs allege forced labour for months

By Admin 19 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
19 October 2023, Kyauktaw
 
Internally displaced people (IDPs) taking shelter at displacement camps in Kyauktaw town say they have been forced to work at government offices for no pay since early this year.
 
The IDPs say they have been forced to do cleaning at the hospital and local General Administration Department, as well as collecting garbage on the town’s Strand Road.
 
A woman from the Maha Gan Gyi Shin IDP camp said she has been forced to do cleaning at the hospital twice. 

“I was told to cut grass and trim bushes, and collect different kinds of waste including sanitary pads and empty water bottles,” she said.
 
The township General Administration Department summoned IDPs using reportedly menacing language through camp managers. IDPs take turns doing what they describe as involuntary work one or two times a month. The IDPs say they were threatened by authorities who said that food supplies to their camps would be suspended if they refused.
 
“We dare not complain for fear that our families might starve if we don’t get food supplies from them,” said a displaced woman from the Kaviyadana IDP camp in Kyauktaw town.
 
IDPs said they were only paid once, when they unloaded relief items for victims of Cyclone Mocha. Even then, they were only given 1,500 kyats to unload the relief supplies.
 
“Around 15 to 30 people were summoned from each IDP camp. I was paid 300 kyats per sack to unload rice sacks. But I was not paid for unloading other items,” said a displaced man from an IDP camp opened at the Kyauktaw railway station.
 
Officials of the township General Administration Department reportedly told IDPs that they would ask Arakan State-level authorities to arrange paid jobs for those who do involuntary work.
 
“They said they would report to state-level authorities to arrange a job for us, but they didn’t guarantee we would get jobs. They told us to leave our camps if we refuse to work for them,” said a displaced woman from the IDP camp at the Kyauktaw railway station.
 
DMG’s calls to Kyauktaw Township administrator U Kyaw Swar Nyunt to ask about the allegations of forced labour went unanswered.
 
Most of the IDPs in Kyauktaw town were displaced nearly four years ago by fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. They are still unable or unwilling to return to their homes for various reasons. Already struggling with the day-to-day difficulties of life in the displacement camp, the IDPs say the forced labour has particularly impacted them both physically and mentally.